Victorian inquiry seeks access to Catholic abuse files

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry is seeking access to the Catholic Church's own files on hundreds of cases of sexual abuse. The inquiry can compel the church to produce the documents if it doesn't comply. Today the inquiry heard more shocking allegations about the extent of abuse.

Transcript

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TIM PALMER: The Victorian parliamentary inquiry into sex abuse by clergy is testing the Catholic Church's willingness to cooperate, requesting access to the church's own files on hundreds of abuse cases.

This afternoon the inquiry has heard shocking claims that decades ago two boys died at the hands of paedophiles at orphanages run by a Catholic order in Melbourne.

The man who has made the allegation says there was a group of paedophiles at the St John of God homes who would stop at nothing to get access to the children and to then cover it up.

St John of God says its own investigations led to a multi-million dollar settlement.

Simon Lauder reports from Melbourne.

SIMON LAUDER: Researcher with the child protection group Broken Rites, Dr Wayne Chamley, gave evidence at the Victorian inquiry this afternoon. He made startling allegations against the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, which ran orphanages in Melbourne's outer east from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Dr Chamley says there was a group of religious brothers who abused boys under the leadership of what he calls an alpha paedophile.

WAYNE CHAMLEY: This crowd, they would stop at nothing to get access to children and to do anything to cover it up.

SIMON LAUDER: Dr Chamley alleges the crimes that took place at those orphanages go beyond sexual abuse. He believes two boys died while in the care of the order.

WAYNE CHAMLEY: Three residents independently told me about this boy who was attacked by a pack of four and eventually thrown down a staircase and was taken to the infirmary and was never seen again.

Now what happened, we will never know. But if you had children who had no family, the family wouldn't even know that the person was deceased.

SIMON LAUDER: He also told of boys being locked up in institutions because they tried to escape.

WAYNE CHAMLEY: And they'd be wandering around the streets and the coppers would pick them up at 3 o'clock in the morning, see a young boy in his pyjamas at 3 o'clock in the morning, stick him in the police car, try and find out where he'd come from and take him back.

And so it starts to get risky for a paedophile if the same victims are going out time after time and meeting with people in the community and particularly members of the police because someone might think, well what is going on here?

And so, the answer is let's take these two kids to see some local general practitioners, let's get a certificate completed under the Lunacy Act and I, the alpha paedophile, will counter-sign it and away they went.

SIMON LAUDER: In a written statement St John of God says it became aware there had been sexual abuse in its Victorian facilities in 1997. It says the order investigated and reported the abuse to police. Ultimately there was a multi-million dollar mediated settlement.

Patrick Tidmarsh is a forensic interview adviser with Victoria Police. He has decades of experience interviewing child abuse victims and perpetrators.

This morning Mr Tidmarsh told the inquiry clergy he has dealt with were not brought to justice.

PATRICK TIDMARSH: I wracked my brains. I could not think of a single case where they were not known, had not been moved, had re-offended and in most cases, several times after that, moved again and re-offended, moved again and re-offended.

SIMON LAUDER: Mr Tidmarsh says one of the most important requirements for investigators is to have an open mind.

PATRICK TIDMARSH: So we find it hard to believe that any other organisation investigating themselves, possibly without knowledge, certainly with consequences for the organisation and the individuals, could genuinely listen with an open mind to these kinds of narratives.

I find that extraordinarily hard to believe.

SIMON LAUDER: Mr Tidmarsh says the Catholic Church doesn't have the independence, the expertise or the motivation to investigate properly.

PATRICK TIDMARSH: I don't think they should be investigating themselves. I think that is absolutely the number one issue. I find it personally and extraordinary that an organisation has set up a separate system, particularly one where if you volunteer for that system you give up your rights to any other system.

SIMON LAUDER: Wrapping up his evidence this afternoon, Dr Wayne Chamley, told the inquiry most offenders go on to lead very comfortable lives with the support and protection of the church.

WAYNE CHAMLEY: Compare it with say any of the, many of the victims that we see; 60 per cent of them I believe have got post-traumatic-stress disorder. I'd say 90 per cent have entrenched psychiatric illness.

SIMON LAUDER: Dr Chamley says many of the victims are worried about what will happen to them in their dotage.

WAYNE CHAMLEY: And the memory that lasts is your childhood memory. What a memory to be stalking them for the remaining 10-15 years of their life. And maybe they'll go into an aged care home re-institutionalised again. This is what they all talk to me about. The fear of what is going to happen to them.

The Catholic Church just doesn't seem to have any idea what these people are facing and I just can't understand it.

SIMON LAUDER: Victims advocates have been pressuring the inquiry to use its powers to obtain the Catholic Church's own files on hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clergy to see all that the church knows and to find out the true extent of the abuse.

Today the committee revealed it has asked the church to open up those files. If the church doesn't comply, the committee can compel it to hand the documents over.